Support from the KAH has enabled Kent to develop the highest concentration globally of secondary IB World Schools. In 2017, the total has reached 30.

Support from the KAH has enabled Kent to develop the highest concentration globally of secondary IB World Schools. In 2017, the total has reached 30.

Through an ambitious collaborative project, fifteen more Kent high schools have been authorised to introduce the IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) from September 2017. They join the nine Kent schools that developed the IBCP in a pilot scheme. A KAH grant financed the provision of high-quality training for leaders and other teachers involved in the project.

The pilot began in 2011, with the last two schools entering their first candidates in 2017. The Head of one wrote, in an email: ‘100% pass rate and all students into first choice university… Students, teachers and I are really happy with results and so much better than previous A level outcomes. It's great to feel successful on KS5 results day for the first time ever in my eight years of headship!’

The IBCP, for post-16 students, is the fourth of the IB programmes and combines academic and vocational education around a core of personal and social development, to prepare students for Higher Education, apprenticeships and employment. As the Kent pilot has shown, the IBCP improves achievement, raises aspirations and enhances employability.

State schools in Kent have offered the IB Diploma Programme since 1996, and the three grammar schools providing it achieved record success in 2017. Kent schools also offer the other two IB programmes, for pupils aged 5 - 11 and 11 -16. Dr Siva Kumari, the Director General of the IB, on a visit to Kent in 2016, celebrated ‘the long, unique and fruitful partnership’ between the IB and the county, commenting: ‘Kent is an incubator of excellent learning.’

With the KAH’s support, this partnership has reached a new and exciting phase.